Kurt Ronsenwinkel’s Bandit65

RUBA Ballroom-Theater

Please join us for a performance by the electrifying trio Bandit65, featuring the otherworldly guitar tandem of Kurt Ronsenwinkel and Tim Motzer.

Bandit65 is a mesmerizing post-jazz sonic trio of breathtaking virtuosity, great power, boundless breadth, and astounding beauty. Kurt Rosenwinkel, Tim Motzer, and Gintas Janusonis explore the intersection of guitars, rhythms, electronics, soundscapes, experimentalism, psych-rock, free improvisation, and telepathic interplay. The trio explores a wide open canvas, searching and pushing the envelope live and discovering captivating mind-blowing multidimensional landscapes of sound in their improvisations.

Beside being two of the most inventive and adventurous guitar wizards in modern music, Rosenwinkel and Motzer both boast deep Philadelphia roots – Rosenwinkel a native who was a member of the miraculous CAPA class that also included Christian McBride, Joey DeFrancesco and members of The Roots; while Motzer has long called the city home, using it as a base for his expansive sonic explorations and all-encompassing collaborations.

“The closely worked textures and supple rhythms that infused this intriguing gig were conjured on the fly from two guitars, a drum kit and a battery of pedals and effects,” described The London Financial Times about a 2018 gig. “Each piece opened with a wash of electronica and evolved into a body-shaking groove, cued by a just-invented riff or a repeated beat. But though even the core of this multi-layered gig was left to chance, it had the clean lines and sense of order of pre-composed music.”

Rosenwinkel needs no introduction in jazz circles: one of the most influential musicians of his generation, he is a defining master, trailblazer, and preeminent international jazz guitarist-composer with a career spanning almost twenty-five years. With over 70 albums of credits, Motzer continues to traverse manifold territories in music and has developed a distinct textural guitar voice utilizing looping, bowing, electronics, and prepared techniques. Janusonis is a NYC-based, Grammy-nominated, internationally-acclaimed drummer, composer, and producer who has worked with a diverse range of world class artists, groups, and producers during a 20-plus year career, including Angelique Kidjo, Branford Marsalis, Lee Scratch Perry, RZA, Wu-Tang Clan, Bill Laswell, David Murray, Bilal and many more.